L'HABITATION HUMAINE

Thème.

Men hâve not always lived in houses. In the remotest times known to history, they lived in caverns ; then, urged by their inner artistic sensé and by social intercourse, they brought to tlieir dwelling-places many improvements.

Traces of the first human societies hâve been found in France, England, Spain, Italy, and also in the vast désert of Sahara, which was then watered by large streams and populated by numerous tribes.

When man had invented the first tools, he chose as places of résidence grottoes the approach to which was difncult. His abode thus became a fortress : he also sometimes dwelt among the branches of trees. Herodotus tells us that the Peonians built their huts on pôles driven in the shallow water of lakes; and, even in our days, river dwellings are found in Guinea, China, and Siam. The rernains of pre-historic river dwellings hâve also been found in some of the Swiss lakes.

Later on huts were built, the roof and walls of which were made of branches and clay ; soon man learned to pile up stones and to fill the interstices with small pebbles and cernent.

Yet thèse houses had no Windows, and the seats were nothing but flat stones. By and by a second floor was built over the first, and doors and Windows were eut in the walls to let in air and light.

We must, however, corne to the nineteenth century to find twenty-story houses, which, if they are practical and provided with ail possible improvements, are by no m/>ans beautiful.

Exercices de Traduction. 201